


The Intimacy of Holding Hands

by poiisedtoad



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Background Relationships, Background Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam - Freeform, M/M, dave had an eensy weensy crush on john, davekat - Freeform, it was his bi awakening oops, mentioned one-sided dave strider/john egbert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-14
Updated: 2020-03-14
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:15:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23133763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poiisedtoad/pseuds/poiisedtoad
Summary: What happens when a marked boy falls in love with a markless one?
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas
Comments: 3
Kudos: 100





	The Intimacy of Holding Hands

**Author's Note:**

> enjoy!

You take a deep breath, giving one last attempt at readying yourself for what you’re about to do. This is it, you’re going to do it. You’re going to ask Karkat if he wants to be your impromptu soulmate. Or boyfriend. Honestly, you wouldn’t mind either at this point, you just want to be with him in any way. You may only be 17 and stupid, but you know enough that you’re certain you want to spend the rest of your life with him. Is that too cheesy? You figure that’s Karkat’s fault for always choosing the lamest romance movies ever when you two get together for a movie night. The one you’re watching right now is starting to rub itself off on you and replace your natural charm with some fondue-esque cheese that keeps seeping out of your normally cool pores every time Karkat so much as breathes in your general direction. You would never admit it, but you definitely prefer this to pushing him away like you used to.

You’re pulled back to reality by Karkat waving his hand in front of your face. Shit, you got so distracted by your thoughts that forgot you were talking to him. You’re already messing shit up and you haven’t even started yet. _Great_. You sit up from your relaxed position next to Karkat, your mattress and red comforter compressing under your weight as you shift. Luckily, he follows suit, sitting up with you.

“Alright, so,” you start after Karkat impatiently tells you to ‘hurry the fuck up and spit it out already!’ “I was thinking about your hands the other day-”

You’re interrupted by Karkat making an ‘eww’ noise and sticking his tongue out with a disgusted expression plastered on his face. “What the fuck?” Even with his face all scrunched up, you still think he’s adorable. How does he do it? You assume he must be some god of beauty. You aren’t sure if that exists, but it should, and Karkat should be the first.

“Dude, no. Not like that. I mean, like, where your mark should be.” You watch as he bristles up, face contorting from disgust to a defensive confusion. This is a touchy subject for him, and you know you’re treading in hot waters just by bringing it up. You figure Karkat is self-conscious about it if how much he likes romcoms is anything to go by.

“You don’t have a soulmate, right? So I was wondering if you might want to…” You trail off, waving your hands in a few nonsensical gestures. As Karkat’s expression changes from shock to conflict, quickly switching between them a couple of times, you know he understood. When his expression finally lands on sorrow, you swallow nervously. Fuck, that isn’t good.

“Dave, I’m not going to date you,” Karkat grumbles, not looking anywhere near you. You pause, trying to process what he just said. 

...Fuck. Karkat’s uncomfortable now, there’s no way in hell he wants to continue being best friends. You royally fucked this up, you know you did.

At least, that’s what you thought.

Karkat groans and ruffles his already messy hair, likely in frustration. You’ve seen him do it countless times, but you still can’t help how it hits you like the heaviest metric fuckton of bricks there is. You ignore the fact that every metric fuckton of bricks is the same weight to pay attention to what Karkat is saying.

“Dave, don’t get me wrong, I want to date the shit out of you. I’ve…” He takes a deep breath. “I’ve had a crush on you for a while, okay?! There, I fucking said it. You’re just… Whatever, that’s not the point!” Karkat brings the sleeve of his stormy gray hoodie up to his mouth and starts anxiously chewing on a hidden finger. Now that you think of it, have you _ever_ seen him without that jacket? Oh yeah, the beach last month. He almost got sunstroke because he wore it for three hours, and you’re confident that he would have worn it for longer if Rose’s soulmate didn’t make him take it off.

To put it simply, you’re confused. He wants to go out with you, he has a _crush on you_ , by the way, holy shit, but he doesn’t want to go out with you? Noticing your confusion, Karkat pipes up, “It’s complicated, alright? What am I going to do when you find your soulmate and leave me? I know for a fucking fact I wouldn’t compare to your soulmate, I’m probably less than dog shit on the bottom of your shoe compared to them. And even if you did stay with me, I don’t want to keep you from true happiness, or whatever the fuck. I couldn’t make you happier than your fucking _soulmate_ , and I’m not going to hold you back from being with them.” Karkat looks away from you and crosses his arms, resting his fingers on the inside of his bicep. You notice his nails are painted black, a detail you couldn’t see before on account of his sleeves, and melt a little more inside. Fuck, how is he so perfect? You can’t believe he’s putting his own feelings aside so you can be happy, even if it hurts him. You are so touched that you don’t really know what to do. Figuring you’d return the vulnerability, you take your shades off and set them on the table next to your bed. 

“Dude, I don’t _care_ about my soulmate. So what the universe paired me up with some loser? The universe can suck my ass, okay? Because I want you, man. My soulmate has nothing on you. You’re, like, literally perfect for me.” Karkat opens his mouth, presumably to make a self deprecative comment, but you cut him off. “Yeah, even though you snore like a possessed pug, look like you’ve never slept despite your constant bedhead, and are barely the height of a fifth-grader.” Honestly? You think those are all pretty fucking endearing.

You smirk softly as you notice a small blush spread across Karkat’s face, but that smile disappears quickly as he shakes his head. “No. No, that isn’t the point. You _think_ I can make you happier, but that’s fucking impossible. I’m not your soulmate, we can’t be together.” You realize Karkat must have been beating himself up over this for a while, and you really do not like that.

You step closer and place a hand on his shoulder, loving the way the feel of human contact warms your hand and insides, even if it is through a pair of fingerless gloves. You don’t get that feeling nearly enough. “Come on, Kitkat, listen to me for a second here. Shades are gone, so you know I’m serious as shit. I’m, like, renouncing my soulmate. Soulmate? What’s that? Oh, you mean Karkat? Yeah, he’s the shit. Best soulmate in the world, everyone is so jealous of me. We could get matching tattoos, no one would know the difference. Oh, shit, there goes Dave and Karkat being soulmates all over the place, isn’t that great, Donna? Yeah, Beatrice, Dave is so lucky to have Karkat as his soulmate, everyone in the world is so jealous that he has the cutest soulmate ever-” And suddenly, Karkat cuts you off with a kiss. It lasts less than a second, but you’re left wide-eyed and immobilized, staring at the little gremlin man in front of you. That wasn’t your first kiss, but it was the best by a long shot, there’s no doubt about that. You are now certain that Karkat is some magical being. 

“So… is that a yes to being my boyfriend and soulmate?” You ask after getting over the fact that just happened, taking the kiss as a good sign. Karkat takes in a deep breath, exhaling before he nods, exclaiming the best ‘yes’ you’ve ever received. You stand there for a few seconds, unsure if this is really happening. It isn’t long until you break out into a wide grin, grabbing Karkat, your new _soulmate_ , by his torso and lifting him into your lap for a hug. He hugs back just as tight as you’re squeezing him, both of you staying like that for what would be an embarrassingly long amount of time if you weren’t hiding behind the privacy of your bedroom’s walls. When you do let him go, Karkat continues to sit in your lap until he realizes what he’s doing and slides off, leaning on the wall the length of your bed is pressed against. 

“Do you, like, want to try something?” You cautiously ask, looking at Karkat as you slowly peel your left fingerless glove off, exposing your soulmark for him to see. “I’ve never held hands with someone without gloves on, so I figured it’d be pretty fuckin’ rad to do it with my _boyfriend_ , even if you do have hands the size of a rat’s.” You tease, pulling the glove off of your other hand. 

Karkat glares at you. “I do _not_ have hands the same fucking size as the ones some shitty rodent that could only be useful as a vampire’s dumbass bubonic fucking plague flavored Capri Sun has!” You can’t help but snort at that. How did you get this lucky? Not only did you get to meet him, which is a fantastic feat in itself, but he decided to go out with you? You’re not sure you’ve ever felt happier.

You hold your hand out, unable to meet Karkat’s gaze any longer. This is pretty intimate, and you think you would explode if you looked at him during this. Karkat sets his hand in your left, startling you into looking at him.

And that’s when the fun begins. Your hands start to burn like they’ve caught on fire, but instead of it being painful, it’s… pretty comforting, actually. You feel like you’ve been hit by lightning and your heart skips more beats than you’re okay with. Holy shit, you knew you couldn’t look, because now you’re actually exploding. Karkat isn’t looking at you anymore, and you follow his gaze down to the back of his hand. _Holy. Fucking. Shit._ Your soulmark is etched onto the skin of his hand. 

Even after everything calms down, you and Karkat are still silently looking at his hand. Yeah, you asked him to be your soulmate, and he agreed, but _this only happens to soulmates when they first touch hands._ You aren’t soulmates, as much as you’d like to be, but just saying you two are soulmates won’t do anything, and if it did, you would know, because John’s soulmark would be on your right hand. Your right hand. _Your right hand._ You quickly bring it into view, eyes widening in shock when you see a mark there. You exclaim a few profanities as you lean to see Karkat’s other hand. The mark is there. This new mark on you is on his hand. It’s on both of you. _It’s on both of you._

Karkat turns his head to look at his other hand, likely because of your reaction, and you hear him suck in a quick breath at the sight. “ _Revealing soulmark_.” He whispers in awe. Revealing soulmark? Suddenly, everything clicks into place. Karkat isn’t markless, he’s your soulmate. He’s been your soulmate this entire time, you just didn’t know because he had one of those invisible marks. How have you never thought of that? 

Before you know it, Karkat has you wrapped up in his arms, squeezing the life out of you. You think he’s crying, hopefully out of happiness, so you decide to use your pointer finger to trace words of affection into his back. You and Karkat stay like that until the movie ends, talking about anything you can think of. After a while, your _soulmate_ restarts the movie and you lay down together. Eventually, you start to drift off, probably from how boring the movie is, with Karkat’s head on your chest. You find the weight comforting. The last thing you remember before falling asleep is receiving a gentle squeeze from his hand, still intertwined with yours.

You wouldn’t trade any part of this for the universe and all its parts.

**Author's Note:**

> this soulmate au is fuckin wack man ive never seen any like it so hopefully its mine and im gonna call it mine until proven otherwise.


End file.
